I've been thinking about the monetization model of EverQuest Legends, and I think I may be starting to see it . . . but I'm not sure I fully understand it yet. I mean, they got my $20 to buy the game (for an indie company that would be enough), which came bundled with a month of subscription time, but what's going to keep me playing? The community? The game itself? Let me just ramble on a bit here . . . feel free to join in comments if you have thoughts.
It's definitely a faster version of the old game that feels so much better than the original experience. (When I say old game, I'm talking early 2000's, not EQ1 circa 2026.) That said, I'm not even the most gamery of the gamers and I'm already level 41 with what . . . 10 days of play time? Part of me thinks that when I hit level 50 (max) and farm the plane of sky a couple times, that I might just feel "done," and that's fine, right? Just getting my $20 price of admission is enough, but what they really should be after with an MMO is that $10 monthly subscription fee. To do that, the post-launch release timeline should be pretty quick.
If you take a look at the roadmap it promises some fun stuff:
I can get behind that. Basically, we get two to four months of this game while they add needed features like player housing and an auction house (no one is selling stuff in the /ooc of east commons tunnel just yet) and a few new things. Would it make me want to resub if my sub has lapsed and either of these features dropped? Hmmm, I'm not sure if that's worth it.
I mean, you can play through the game several times as the same character while leveling different classes, which also means you'll probably be buying extra inventory slots for various gear and playing styles. Maybe, strictly from a microtransaction experience, this is making more sense than I originally thought.
In addition, you have the whole "motes" system where you can level your spells and your gear to max them out. Mote hunting could take an enormous amount of time, and if they're smart, they'll sell mote bundles in the shop eventually, but for now . . . mote hunting and AA grinding might just keep it sticky enough to get you hooked -- although slightly boring I suppose? I guess if the company is good, I'd do mote farming.
For the Fall Update, how much will Nektropos Castle cost for a DLC? Will it cost anything? What would you pay? From what I understand, Nektropos was an EverQuest 2 zone off of Nektulos Forest. I didn't play much EQ2, but my hope would be that it's a pretty exciting place to grind high level stuff (Actually, reading Chasing Dings, it was a early to mid 30's zone in EQ2 -- doesn't mean they have to do that in this game, although an intricate key quest to get in could be fun). Will it use EQ2 graphics? Will it be an homage done in EQ1 old school graphics? SO MANY QUESTIONS!
For the Winter Update, how much will Kunark cost for a DLC? Will it make me want to relevel to 50 in the Kunark zones or will they bump levels to 60? Am I going to want to spend some time against the Wall of Bone and hunting against the wall in the Dreadlands? (I do miss those days with old online friends.)
It's all just really interesting to me. Is it the plan to keep you buying a new DLC every 3 months while hoping you keep subbed after you've crashed through content?
As a side note I really hope they incorporate easy open raiding like Guild Wars 2! That's a very un-EQ thing, but also that's the best way to respect my time in an MMO and still give me the raiding experience. If I ever have to live by a DKP system again, I'M OUT!
Happy Dueling
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